Aren't we a talented bunch?

Ben Pobjie

DOES Australia have talent? As we gear up for another season of Australia's Got Talent, that is the question Channel Seven simultaneously asks and answers: of course it does! And the reason we know Australia's got talent is that we saw it on television. The proof was right up there, in the marvellous abilities of the performers who braved that stage.

And the existence of Australia's talent has been confirmed by AGT's three wise monkeys, Kyle Sandilands, Brian McFadden and Dannii Minogue. And if there were ever three people who know talent when they see it, it's those three: Dannii's sister actually has some, while Brian used to be engaged to someone with a bit, and Kyle … probably met someone with talent in a corridor at the radio station once, I guess. So if they say Australia's got talent, who are we to argue?

And, of course, the great thing about Australia's Got Talent is that it covers such a broad range of talents. It's not like Australian Idol, which was purely about singing, or So You Can Think You Can Dance, which was purely about self-delusion. On AGT any kind of performer can win, from singers and dancers to instrumentalists or, in the case of 2011 winner Jack Vidgen, Hayley Mills impersonators. The variety is just stunning and it's an excellent way to demonstrate that Australia has talent, not just in a narrow sense but all over. As a nation, we are well-rounded.

Of course, there might be other ways for us to find out whether Australia's got talent or not. We could go see some live music, or check out comedy nights, or attend the theatre, or the opera, or wherever it is that gum leaf blowers get together.

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We could do these things but television, with its mass audience and neatly packaged portions and perky, three-foot-tall hosts, makes it a lot more convenient for us. Which is why if you want people to know you've got talent, TV is the way to go, or you may labour in the shadows forever.

Look at MasterChef. We are told the finalists are ''the best amateur chefs in Australia''. Now we know that's not strictly true: they are actually just the best amateur chefs who want all of Australia to see close-ups of the sweat dripping off their noses while George Calombaris yells puns at them. Which is a smaller subset of ''amateur chefs''. But if there are better amateur chefs out there, they're not on TV, so why should we care? We can't go over to their house for dinner - their skills are useless to us. It's only when they summon up the guts and/or stupidity to step in front of the cameras that their talents matter.

So it is with Australia's Got Talent. Maybe these are not the most talented people in Australia. Maybe their performances will be nightmarishly cringeworthy. Maybe the judges are a bunch of tools who should be slapped with fish until they wake up to themselves. But if we want to know just how talented our country is, we can't rely on pubs and clubs and leaf-blowing seminars to provide us an accurate measure. It's too haphazard - we need TV.

Does Australia have talent? It sure does. And in showing us just how much, AGT is providing a valuable service. God bless it.